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Irish Inventors and ingenuity
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25-02-2012 6:35pm#1Submarine inventor.
The 24th February was an anniversary of the birth of a little known Irish genius of invention and engineering. John Holland was to become most famous for inventing the submarine but had other strings to his bow.
This is one of his drawings as he developed his design- he had recorded his first design in 1859 and it was to change little after that.
The man was from Liscannor, Co. Clare.It was appropriate that the young man who had been born in Liscannor should have an obsession with sea travel. He was also interested in flying and while in Cork with the Christian Brothers he drew up designs of an aeroplane. A man of many talents, he was also musically gifted.
He was fortunate that while in Cork he had an excellent science teacher in Brother Dominic Burke, a Limerickman. Brother Burke encouraged him in his designs for a submarine and as early as 1859 he completed his first drafts for a submarine design, a design he never radically changed.
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By the time Holland left the Brothers, his mother and his two brothers had emigrated to Boston. He joined them in 1873 and worked for a time with an engineering firm. However, he took up teaching again for a further six years in St. John’s Catholic School in Paterson, New Jersey. When he submitted his design for a submarine to the U.S. Navy, the Navy Secretary rejected it as “a fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman”. Holland’s brother, Michael, had been introduced to the Fenian Movement who had organised a “skirmishing fund” administered by John Devoy. The physical force nationalism of the Fenians and the determined inventor combined in a project to build a submarine to use against the British Navy.
The idea was to construct a submarine to hold three men. It would be carried aboard a harmless-looking merchant ship which would come close to a British war-ship. The sub would then slip out a door underneath the water, attack the warship and then return to base. The fund allowed six thousand dollars as an initial payment towards development. Holland saw it as a great opportunity to realise his life’s ambition.
His first submarine the Holland No. 1 (see image below), was planned in St. John’s School and it was built in Todd & Raftery’s shop, Paterson, NJ. It saw the light of day in 1877. It was 14 feet long and was powered by a primitive 4 h.p. engine and carried one man. It was brought down to the Passaic River and launched before a big audience. But someone had forgotten to insert the two screw plugs and the sub began to sink underneath the water.
The following day, however, Holland made several successful dives. The Fenians were impressed and voted more money to develop a boat “suitable for war”. Holland removed the useful parts from No. 1 and scuttled her, figuring that it was cheaper to start afresh rather than take her out of the water and put her in storage. Fifty years later, the little sub was salvaged from the Passaic river and, together with Holland’s papers, is now preserved in the Paterson town museum.
With extra funds from the Fenians, Holland was able to give up his teaching job and concentrate on his experiment. Holland was cautious about giving information to newspapers. He seemed to think that every reporter was a British spy in disguise. A reporter from the New York Sun, unable to get information of Holland’s new sub and its Fenian connection, labelled the invention The Fenian Ram.
The Fenian Ram, built at Delamater Iron Works, New York, was launched in May 1881. It was 31 feet long, driven by a 15 h.p. engine, could travel at 9 m.p.h. over water and 7 under water, displaced 19 tons and was armed with an underwater canon fired by compressed air. Although the Fenian Ram had marked an important stage in submarine development, the Fenians were no longer prepared to back Holland who severed all connections with the organisation after that. Indeed, twenty years later he was not slow in selling his designs to the British Navy who launched their own Holland designed sub in October 1901.
After many frustrating efforts with the American Naval authorities Holland won an open competition for a submarine design and in 1896 the John Holland Torpedo Boat Company was set up with Charles A. Morris as Chief Engineer. From the start there were problems due to undue interference from professionals in the Navy Department who regarded Holland as a gifted amateur. They insisted on some radical changes which Holland said could not work. He was proved right in the end as the sub was far too cumbersome, “over-engineered” was Holland’s comment. It was abandoned as useless in 1900.
Holland’s No. 6 was his most successful craft so far. It was 53 feet long and driven by a 45 h.p. gas engine for surface travel and a 45 h.p. gas engine for underwater travel. It carried a crew of fifteen, and had a torpedo tube in the bow. It took its first dive on St. Patrick’s day, 1898, in New York Harbour and was acclaimed a success.
Despite inspections and favourable publicity and indeed the recommendation of the then Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, the Government did not buy the submarine. Holland made some alterations and after a final test in March 1900 the U.S. Government bought the Holland No. 6 on April 12, 1900 for $150,000 - a bargain price, as it had cost twice as much to produce. It was commissioned on October 12, 1900, the first submarine of the American Navy.
As well as selling his designs to the British Navy, Holland built two submarines for Japan which were used against Russian in the war of 1904-5. He received the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to the Japanese Naval victory.
John Philip Holland from Liscannor died on August 12, 1914. He is buried in Totowa, New Jersey, less than one mile from where he launched his first submarine. In 1976 his grave was marked with a large headstone. In 1964 a plaque was erected in Liscannor commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Castle Street in Liscannor has been renamed Holland Street in his honour. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/holland.htm
I thought there may be some other interesting inventions by Irish people or stories of Irish genius that could fit in with this to form a thread so please feel free to add suggestions.Many failed to recognize John's brilliance of design at the time, and it took fifty years for him to be well remembered. It was not until 1951 with the Albacore, that submarine design returned to the porpoise shape that John envisioned for his craft and then successfully managed to exceed the seven-knot underwater speed that the Holland and the Fenian Ram achieved over fifty years earlier. http://www.engology.com/articlesubmarine.htm1
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The Ferguson plough system - Revolutionised farming when it was invented by Harry Ferguson in 1926. Ferguson (nicknamed the 'mad mechanic') also designed and built his own motorcycle, racing car and plane, and he became the first Irishman to fly in 1909.
Harry Ferguson was another legendary figure in mechanical engineering history. Of course his involvement with tractors is his most famous legacy nowadays with a part name still in Massey Ferguson. His ploughs first and then his tractors helped modernise farming into what it is now. He hailed from Co. Down and like John Holland he ended up in America for business reasons.At the age of 14 he left school to work on the family 100 acre farm, after a period on the farm Harry considered the possibility of emigrating to Canada, in fact he had all the paper work in hand to do so. His elder brother Joe had served an apprenticeship with Combe Barbour, Linen Spinners, Joe set up his own business in the Autumn of 1901 on the Shankill Road as a car and cycle repair shop, in 1902 Harry joined his brother in the business, which became very successful.It was at this time that harry met T. McGregor Greer, a well to do landowner from Tullylagen, Co. Tyrone, Harry made many visits to the Tyrone estate to tune Greer's cars.
Harry met and fell in love with a young Dromore woman Maureen Watson, the daughter of a grocer in the town, unfortunately Harry's brother Joe had designs on the same lady, this perhaps led to friction between the brothers and they parted company, although Harry won the lady's hand, despite objections from her parents who were Brethren, the religion in which Harry himself had been brought up, although he rejected it, declaring himself agnostic, the couple were married in Newry Registry Office.
By 1911 he had his own business 'May Street Motor Co' in Belfast backed by his friend McGregor Greer of Tyrone Within a year the company name was changed to Harry Ferguson Motors. http://www.oracleireland.com/Ireland/people/ferguson-h.htm
This is his monoplane in 1910 becoming the first Irishman to fly(1909), He built it himself!
After WWII he used a factory in coventry to begin building the famous TE-20 tractors that can still be seen across the coutry, mostly at vintage events.During WW2 The Standard Motor Company had operated on behalf of the Government a new "shadow" factory making aero engines. This 1,000,000 sq ft (92.903 sq m) plant in Banner Lane, Coventry, stood idle once the war had ended and Standard's managing director Sir John Black was anxious to find a use for it. Such a large empty factory was also of interest to Harry Ferguson and a deal was struck between the two. As usual Ferguson was to be in charge of design, development, sales and service while Standard Motor Company made the tractors for him.
The first product of the new "alliance" was the TE20 (TE = Tractor England) and the first one came off the Banner Lane production line on the 6 July 1946. The little grey Fergie as it became known was a milestone, not only for Ferguson but agriculture in general. http://www.ferguson-museum.co.uk/52_ferguson.htm
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Judgement Day wrote: »Given that Harry Ferguson was an Orangeman I wonder if it is fair to claim him as an 'Irish' inventor? Likewise Sir.Charles Parsons.....Anyway, having stirred the pot I'm away to watch the rugby.
Would we take him???
Anyway I'm sure his ingenuity came from his irish influences!
On a serious note was'nt his work developing the plough done at the behest of the Irish government? 0 -
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I have to say that in the line of inventions tractors don't send my pulse racing but here's a website for all you farmers http://www.ferguson-museum.co.uk 0
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Irish railways produced their own share of innovators and foremost amongst them were the Traills of Bushmills, Co.Antrim who were behind the development of the World's first hydro electrically powered tramway at the Giant's Causeway.
http://www.bushmillsps.org.uk/tram.htm0 -
This is an interesting one and I am not sure it was Martin who invented it. He may have investigated but it was first patented by a Romanian in France and then by Karl Arnold, Oscar Nissen, Rheinhold Preuschen and Otto Schwarz in Germany and first used in Heinkel test aircrafts .Ejector seat - Invented by Sir James Martin, his device was first tested using a crash dummy in 1945. The following year saw a live test. His invention was soon adopted by the RAF.
Here is a strip image of the concept in action:
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Judgement Day wrote: »I have to say that in the line of inventions tractors don't send my pulse racing but here's a website for all you farmers http://www.ferguson-museum.co.uk
Tractors of a certain vintage have become a part of our heritage and rightly so. There is something about seeing a ferguson 20 or 35 in a hayfield that seems set in a certain era. There is alot of interest in restoration of these first tractors that people would have been familiar with in their youth. Vintage machinery restoration became massively popular in the 'Celtic tiger' and seems to be continuing.0
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